Updated gdb packages that fix one security issue and three bugs are nowavailable for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderatesecurity impact. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score,which gives a detailed severity rating, is available from the CVE link inthe References section.

The GNU Debugger (GDB) allows debugging of programs written in C, C++,Java, and other languages by executing them in a controlled fashion andthen printing out their data.

GDB tried to auto-load certain files (such as GDB scripts, Python scripts,and a thread debugging library) from the current working directory whendebugging programs. This could result in the execution of arbitrary codewith the user's privileges when GDB was run in a directory that hasuntrusted content. (CVE-2011-4355)

With this update, GDB no longer auto-loads files from the current directoryand only trusts certain system directories by default. The list of trusteddirectories can be viewed and modified using the "show auto-load safe-path"and "set auto-load safe-path" GDB commands. Refer to the GDB manual, linkedto in the References, for further information.

This update also fixes the following bugs:

* When a struct member was at an offset greater than 256 MB, the resultingbit position within the struct overflowed and caused an invalid memoryaccess by GDB. With this update, the code has been modified to ensure thatGDB can access such positions. (BZ#795424)

* When a thread list of the core file became corrupted, GDB did not printthis list but displayed the "Cannot find new threads: generic error" errormessage instead. With this update, GDB has been modified and it now printsthe thread list of the core file as expected. (BZ#811648)

* GDB did not properly handle debugging of multiple binaries with thesame build ID. This update modifies GDB to use symbolic links created forparticular binaries so that debugging of binaries that share a build IDnow proceeds as expected. Debugging of live programs and core files isnow more user-friendly. (BZ#836966)

All users of gdb are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, whichcontain backported patches to correct these issues.

4. Solution:

Before applying this update, make sure all previously-released erratarelevant to your system have been applied.